Victory and Faith

The Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
Easter I, 2011
May 1st, 2011

Victory and Faith

“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith...” I John 5:4

Does the word “victory” bother you? Does it offend you? In our modern, or as it is often termed, “postmodern” world, it does seem to bother some people. In fact, “victory” is a term that we don’t hear very often. On the other hand, we do hear things like “negotiated settlement”, or “phased-in withdrawal”, or “limited engagement”, but not the word “victory” very often.

Why is that? No doubt there are a host of reasons, some of them stemming from a wide variety of motives. Yet, we would submit to you that one chief reason for mistrust in the quest for victory may be doubt in the righteousness of one’s motives, or if you will, a lack of confidence that one is right. If one doesn’t truly believe that one’s cause it just, how can one be fully committed to achieving victory? For example, in my own life, I first noticed the seeds of “hate America first” sprouting in academia during my junior high and high school years in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. A great deal of this, no doubt, sprang from the protest movement over our involvement in Vietnam. We are not here to debate or even discuss that, however, from a political or even geo-political standpoint. That is not our purpose. Rather, we are here to discuss victory in terms of the Christian life, and most ultimately, our afterlife.

Returning to our original premise, we will submit to you that dedication to victory requires absolute sureness in the correctness of one’s position. Here lies the rub. One reason why so many people may be uncomfortable with the concept of victory has to do with the perception of their own purity, or lack thereof. Putting it even stronger, it has to do with their relationship with evil. Not that they are necessarily evil, or rotten to the core, it is just that in our modern world so many of us have some ambivalence towards evil and sin. Once again, it is not that we would countenance absolute evil or gross misbehavior, but rather that our current world situation is so imbued with sin that contagion from it is very difficult or even impossible to some extent. For example, I am sure that those of us who are subscribers to cable or satellite television have noticed the increasing coarseness of the language, all in the interests of “artistic realism.” Thus, if we aware that we are tainted in some respect how can our motives towards victory be pure? If we possess even a touch of self-loathing, which may be the malady of our modern society, we will doubt our worthiness to achieve victory.

Our Epistle for the day from the first letter of John clearly dispels any doubt about the rightness of our victory, for one key reason: our source. That is, rather than experiencing the lackluster approval our own spirits give us, we have something better. Said again, rather than rejoicing in our own deceptive or even delusional self concept and feelings of self-worth, we have a renaissance of something real, eternal, and perfect. Simply said, we who are Christians are no longer of the world in the same sense as others who have not tasted the sweetness of Christ. We are born of God and thus this statement: (1 John 5:4) “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Said one more time: we who are baptized, worshipping, committed Christians are in the world, but not of it because we trace our spiritual genealogy to Christ Himself.

Considering this, how did Christ come and how can we believe His report? To answer this, we must back up just a bit and explore some of John’s motives for writing this epistle. It is obvious that he is seeking to bolster the faith of the early church, but there was another, more sinister reason that sprang up, namely a group called the Docetists. This group taught that Jesus was not really a man, but merely seemed to be so. Another group taught that Christ wasn’t God, but was only a man. One of their reasons for thinking this was abhorrence to the idea that God could die. Since God couldn’t die, Jesus couldn’t be God. Rather they had an idea that “the Christ” came upon Jesus during His lifetime, but suddenly left Him when he expired on the Cross.

John refutes these positions by telling us that Christ came in this fashion: (1 John 5:6) “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.” Examining this statement closer, we see that Christ did not come by water only, that is, by baptism, whereby the spirit of “the Christ” came on Jesus, but water and blood. Yes, Jesus began his ministry when the Holy Spirit alighted upon him at Jordan, ostensibly after His baptism. He finished his work on the Cross, where His holy Blood was shed for us. We orthodox Christians know that Christ did not need baptism to receive the Spirit, but evidently some early heretics did.
Recall that Jesus “suffered” John to baptize Him in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” His baptism was meant as a sign for us and showed that Jesus fulfilled, but did not destroy the Law.

Thus, John the writer of this epistle seeks to tie the water and the blood together to proclaim the unity of Christ. The water and the blood agree on earth, while the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth of Christ. In a wonderful use of parallel witness, John also tells us there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word (Christ) and the Spirit. These three are one and they agree. Thus, we have the Trinity in heaven: Father, Word, and Spirit agreeing to the truth of Christ. We also have the earthly trinity, the Spirit, the blood, and the water agreeing also. According to the Old Testament Law, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, something was confirmed; so it is with Christ. Both trinities on earth and in Heaven agree on the truth of Christ as both God and man. This is wonderful proof text for the Holy Trinity. In the words of John, it couldn’t be clearer that Christ is not only man but God as well.

Let me ask you: is there such a thing as the sin of unbelief? That is, is it actually a sin not to believe in Jesus as the Son of God? This is an interesting question, but it is one that John can answer with an unequivocal “yes.” Why? Simply because he states that while the witness of man is important, the witness of God is greater. God has witnessed to the truth of His Son through his miraculous birth, his sinless life, his ministry, his passion, and greatest of all, his resurrection. Besides all this, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Son, and his witness is true.

Continuing with this thought, those of us who accept the truth of Christ and believe in him receive a witness in ourselves. We simply know through faith that He is true. On the other hand, those who reject God make Him a liar, because they reject the witness God has given us of His Son. It certainly seems to me that those who do this are sinning because not only do they reject the Truth, but they call the Truth a lie by their actions of unbelief.

Simply, John tells us the record that God the Father has given us of His Son: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Those who have the Son have life, and those who have not the Son have not life. It is at once simple and profound.

Sometimes, we need to accept the truth at face value. We Christians must have faith to believe, and that faith is in a man who was born of God, came among us, taught us, healed us, and ultimately died for us. This too is simple and profound.

In the end, our faith in this God-man enables us to overcome the world. It is a faith that comes not from ourselves, but from the One who gives us all things. He Himself enables us to believe in Him as He draws us to Him. He enables us to love him because He first loved us. He is able to give us unquenchable joy because He is the Source of all joy.

We will, in the end, overcome this fallen world through Christ. Through our faith in the record that God the Father has given of His Son, we have this witness in ourselves. In the end, after all the hoopla and panoply of futility has passed by, we will have something else: a real, durable life in Christ that will not and cannot be overcome.

Do we have victory? 1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN